Internal services for Boeing employees to raise safety and quality concerns have “exploded” this year, an executive said after a whistleblower said he endured retaliation for speaking out. insisted.
The company has been under intense scrutiny since a horrific cabin panel explosion in January raised new questions about the production of its best-selling 737 Max commercial jet.
But the Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating allegations by Boeing engineer Sam Salepour that the manufacturing giant took shortcuts to reduce production bottlenecks while building the 787 Dreamliner. He also raised issues surrounding the production of the 777, another wide-body aircraft.
Salepour, who has worked for Boeing for more than a decade, said he faced retaliation after raising his concerns, including threats and being removed from meetings. He is scheduled to testify at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Boeing Vice President Lisa Fahl, who previously oversaw quality on the 787 production line, told reporters at a Monday briefing that an online portal where workers can confidentially report safety and quality concerns is available. He said the number of employees using Speak Up has decreased. It has increased rapidly in recent months.
“As we continued to encourage Speak Up, the amount of Speak Ups we received has exploded,” Fahl said. She estimated that in January and February alone, the service posted “as much as last year.”
A Boeing spokesperson said the company’s heavy promotion of Speak Up in the wake of the crash on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, earlier this year led to a 500% increase in filings in the first quarter compared to a year earlier. added.
This is “what we want,” Fahl added, adding that Boeing is making the system easy for employees to use and ensuring their messages are routed to the appropriate executives for review. I explained what I had been trying to do.
The company says retaliation against whistleblowers is “unacceptable,” but Salepour says he faced this before going public last week. He claimed that parts of the 787 Dreamliner’s fuselage could disintegrate in-flight after thousands of flights. interview The New York Times reported how sections were improperly fastened together.
Salepour also talked about how during the 777’s construction, he “literally saw people jumping on parts of the plane and adjusting their positions.”
“That’s not part of our process,” Farr said Monday when asked for comment on the allegations. “If any employee sees another employee jumping on a panel, he or she will let us know,” said Steve Chisholm, chief engineer for mechanical and structural engineering, another Boeing executive. Dew,” he added.
After newsletter promotion
The pair detailed that extensive testing and inspection has given Boeing confidence in the safety and durability of its 787 and 777 aircraft.
For example, Chisholm said that during tests on the damaged aircraft, 40,000 blows from a control pendulum weighing more than 300 pounds “did not increase the damage.”
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and board chairman Larry Kellner planned to resign last month after scrambling to reassure regulators, airlines and passengers in the wake of the January explosion. announced.
